So yesterday’s comments were awesome! It reminded me of the good old days of blogging pre-social media when there were only two popular channels to chat online, blog comments or message boards.
I feel like a dinosaur.
Anyway, I got schooled by a few folks who all made very good points about iffym and how it’s actually pretty similar to Weight Watchers, which I can totally see. I still stand by my opinions, but I agree, the post could have used a little less snark.
I’m just so frustrated and saddened by everyone’s continual search for THE answer. I know it’s not sexy to say eat less and move more. I know it’s not popular to burst people’s bubbles about aesthetic goals. But I’ve been at this for 10 years and all my posts are basically written to the “Old-Yo-Yo-Dieting-Roni” and guess what… “Old-Yo-Yo-Dieting-Roni” would immediately look at iifym and think it was going to solve all her problems. She’d punch some numbers, set a start date of Monday and have one last “goodbye meal” before starting her perfect iifym diet in the morning. Then something would happen, she’d find chocolate in the pantry or maybe her friends asked if she wanted to go out to dinner and BAM… iifym failure.
Time to start binging again.
Old-Yo-Yo-Dieting-Roni at one of her heaviest times.
This would, of course, be after “Old Yo-Yo Dieting Roni” already tried Paleo but beat herself up for wanting a sandwich on bread or ice cream with her kids. She would have signed up for a Whole30 challenge a few months before that only to fail on the first day someone brought doughnuts to the office. She’d then resort to researching diet pills and give fasting a shot because something, SOMETHING was going to work.
It just had to.
I know that’s not everyone but I also know that’s someone. Someone out there is “Old-Yo-Yo-Dieting-Roni” and they can change their relationship with food and their body because I did.
I read a post this morning that brought tears to my eyes and it may give you a bit more insight into my mentality and why I’m so passionate about this. I don’t do what I do to help people sculpt some perfect body or lose their last 5 vanity pounds. I do what I do because those people who search for some diet to be their solution put all their eggs in the “After” basket. They truly believe seeing a number on the scale or fitting a certain size is the goal which will bring them ultimate happiness.
I believed that.
My old “After” picture but it was just a “during” or really a start??
I did not write the following words but I feel as if I did. The author captures exactly how I after losing 70 pounds nearly 10 years ago…
The truth is my body melted away, and I stared at myself in the mirror not understanding why I couldn’t love the skin I’m in. Why? I thought After was the goal!
But I made a mistake.
A crucial mistake.
I forgot that the number on the scale is only a number. Only just a number. It’s not a before. It’s not an after. Getting that number to a certain set of digits is not my After.
I’m not at After. There is no After – happily ever or otherwise. There is only today. Just today – During.
And here she captures how I’ve felt since…
There. Is. No. After.
There’s no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow of weight loss because the rainbow has no end.
There is today. There is now. There is during. There is life.
I uncovered myself one pound at a time; now, I must REcover myself…I must DIScover myself. And that…that is the new goal. Not numbers. Not sizes. Not inches.
Me. I am the goal. Finding. Loving. Being.
And now I’m crying again.
I’ve been discovering myself for last 10 years and I will continue to do so.
That whole post is really, REALLY powerful — Click here to read it in its entirety.
~*~*~*~
Today’s Journal
Food
- 5:45 a.m. Slice of toast with peanut butter.
- 7:15 a.m. Post-workout shake (1/2 scoop).
- 8 a.m. Finished the 4-Year-Old’s bowl of shredded mini-wheats – they abondon it when it gets mushy and I think that’s the best part!
- 10:00 a.m. Quinoa with ham and cheese. This time I measured and took a pic for GreenLiteBites — will share soon.
- 1 p.m. Chipotle but I changed it up — Salad no rice, with steak, fajita veggies, pinto beans, salsa, and guac NO cheese. <– that was my #wycwyc food choice today and you know what, I didn’t even miss the cheese.
- 4 p.m. Handful of Purely elizabeth Ancient Grain Granola Cereal Cranberry Pecan
— sent to me as a sample.
- 6 p.m. 2 Fish Tacos while out with friends.
- 10 p.m. Avocado pudding made with maple syrup, cocoa powder, and almond milk — my stomach was growing and we just started a movie.
Activity
- 6 a.m. workout: warm up was a 400m run and stretching
Front Squats
5 @ 33 lbs
5 @ 63 lbs
5 @ 78 lbs
5 @ 93 lb
4 @ 103 lbs
3 @ 113 lbs
3 @ 123 lbs <– I can’t believe how easy this was. I mean it was hard but easy. Other lifters will understand. ;)
Today’s workout was a combo of toes-to-bars, cleans and front squats. I suck at toes-to-bar just like I suck at pull-ups so I ended up doing mostly knees to elbows. I was a little hard on myself but then I remembered I can kill it at double unders now when just a few months ago I thought I’d never get them either. This is why I love CrossFit. Progress. - 12:15 p.m. 3/4 mile quick run before heading out to lunch. I really didn’t want to go because the wind was whipping. I hate running in the wind. But I went and did what I could, it was better than nothing at all.